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I normally don't post reviews. This is my first one. I'm somewhat at a loss for words given the experience I've just been through with pCloud. I'm still in shock as I'm writing this. In short, I just lost 95% of irreplaceable data that was stored on pCloud. Gone. Precious old photos. Scans of legal documents. Countless work files. According to pCloud tech support, this information has been lost forever. Like many users, up until purchasing a 2TB Lifetime Plan on pCloud, I was storing data on a never-ending trail of hard drives where I backed them up to new drives once one eventually failed. When I purchased my pCloud storage, I thought those days were over because I assumed they could be trusted to safeguard my data. Therefore, I stopped creating and maintaining what I thought were unneeded backups. As you can see on this site, most of their reviews are favorable. And I too was a happy customer up until now. But in the end, when their systems were tested they were inexplicably incompetent and failed me in the worst possible way.On 5/31/2019 I was working on data stored on pCloud from my desktop at work with no problems, as I do almost every workday. A few days later when I was at home, I tried to retrieve data on pCloud from the same folder using my laptop, as I've also done literally hundreds of times before. This time, however, I noticed that a folder on pCloud containing numerous sub-folders and literally thousands and thousands of files had completely disappeared.How the files were accidentally deleted is immaterial because, while I was initially concerned, I was also at ease because I knew that a business whose job was to store data had backups that could easily restore my missing data, especially data that was deleted just a few days ago. I subscribed to a pCloud feature called "Rewind" that was supposed to enable me to go back 30 days and restore files that had been deleted. When I did this and restored data back to 5/30/19, I noticed the folder was still missing. I desperately went back further and further in the past and the folder was still not there.This made no sense and I was starting to worry. But I took comfort believing that there was no way that my data could not be restored and lost forever. When I first reached out to pCloud customer service and explained what happened, they quickly concluded that the data was not stored online but was stored locally. I explained that wasn't true for two reasons. First, when I originally stored these files on pCloud, I uploaded all the files directly from the web client. I did not copy from an external hard drive to a folder on my desktop that synced. So at the very least, the original uploaded files should have been there. Second and more importantly, I accessed and used these files from two different computers: One at work and one at home. So it was impossible that these files were mistakenly stored locally and not stored online. If they were only stored locally, I wouldn't be able to access them from a different computer.I swapped about four or five email with their customer service about this, who, by the way, were all very nice and professional. After going back-and-forth a few times with no favorable resolution, Customer service forwarded the issues to the developers to resolve. After a few hours, I received an email saying that "Our developers have just informed me that the folder has been deleted on Sat, 01 Jun 2019 22:21:02 +0000. Since it has been permanently deleted from our system, there is no way to restore it."Huh? Permanently deleted? How could a file be permanently deleted that was deleted just a few days ago? Isn't that why backups are performed? pCloud touts their Rewind feature on their website by saying "Revisit your account from up to 365 days ago! Rewind helps you find and restore old versions of your files or accidentally removed shares. Pick a date and time from the calendar above and rewind the time!" Why couldn't this be done on a file deleted only a few days ago? It makes no sense.By the way, not that this matters much but I'm no fool when it comes to tech. While I definitely don't claim to be an expert, I generally know my way around technology. I have an advanced degree and hold a senior management position at a reputable firm. I say this not as an attempt to boost my online ego but to hopefully bring a little bit of credibility to my review/warning. I suppose the reader will make that decision.With that said, while I was in the midst of communicating with customer service, I was wondering if anyone else had experienced the same data loss horror that I was enduring. Sadly, I found a March 29, 2018 review on this website by Cristoph where he also described inexplicably losing data.So by not doing my due diligence before signing up with pCloud, maybe I'm not as smart as I thought I was after all.In the end, unless someone from pCloud reads this review, has mercy, and somehow restores my data, I'm screwed. Maybe it's my fault by signing up with a less-recognized overseas provider that's not as reputable as Box, Google, Microsoft, or Dropbox. My advice is this: Unless you want to roll the dice and possibly eventually lose all your irreplaceable data as I did, I strongly recommend you staying away from pCloud.I still get cold sweats when I think about all the precious, irreplaceable data that's been lost forever thanks mostly to the incompetency of pCloud. The fact that they cannot restore data that was deleted just a few days ago is inexcusable.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------The above review was posted on 6/4/19 before pCloud escalated my problem and replied to this review. Since then, I've exchanged many emails with people at pCloud in an attempt to figure out what happened, with no conclusive or favorable results. Quite frankly, I hope to have the last word on this because, while addressing everything professionally, pCloud has nevertheless refused to consider that they are somehow responsible for this. They have information yet can't resolve the problem favorably so they propose theories that, while rationale, don't make sense in my case when other facts are considered. It has been pCloud's contention all along that I, or someone I know who had access to my account, intentionally deleted the folder AND went online and emptied the folder from Trash. I learned earlier today from pCloud that the missing folder was emptied from Trash at around 2pm PST on 6/1/19. That further supports my contention that I didn't delete the missing folder because I was with my parents and not anywhere near a computer at that time.There are many other reasons why it was simply impossible for me or anyone I know to have emptied the Trash folder. First, I never give anyone my username/password. Never. I know better...especially with such critical information. Second, I rarely login to pCloud online. 99.9% of the time I access pCloud on my PC or laptop and sync. So I rarely, if ever, delete Trash online. Third, no one knows I have a pCloud account. I am single with no children. I did not store anyone else's information. Finally and as just said, I was not home or used a computer last Saturday at 2pm. I was at my elderly parent's house helping them with chores and house projects.For some strange reason, I wish someone could find a reason to blame me for this. At this point, I want to be held accountable because, if it were my fault, it would not expect others to correct this mistake. But the facts aren't there. Not even close. I do not remember deleting the folder to begin with. And I was not even near a computer on 6/1/2019 at around 2pm let alone logging into pCloud, going into Trash and emptying it. And there is no one who has the ability to access my account, even accidentally. Too many things must have happened in succession for this to occur for it to be an accident on my part.And as mentioned, the fact that pCloud does not have a way to restore lost data is, in my opinion, inexcusable and also unbelievable. pCloud must have backups to safeguard data. If something terrible happened (virus, terrorism, etc) that somehow compromised user data, pClould must have a process to restore it. I do not believe that pCloud does not periodically backup user data to an offsite location, just in case something tragically unexpected happened. The little I know about IT is that offsite backups are best practices in data storage management.Sadly for me, all this changes nothing. I'm afraid that I'm a victim of unexplained data loss much like Cristoph experienced in March 2018. I entrusted pCloud with safeguarding my data and I've been wronged in the worst possible way.Not only have I lost irreplaceable photos and documents, but I will be many, many spending days and more likely weeks recreating work files that I thought were safely stored on pCloud.Everyone at pCloud was nice. Their customer service was responsive and it appears they have spent a lot of time trying to resolve this. However, it's clear that they don't have the internal processes needed to safeguard user data 100% of the time. And safeguarding data is a critical part of their job with the results speaking for themselves in my messed-up case.I've learned too. I've learned to research and listen more closely to previous users bad experiences. If I would have done so and heeded Cristoph's warning, I wouldn't have experienced the same thing he did and inexplicably lost valuable work, important documents, and priceless photos. For that, shame on me.Learn from my mistake, people.

PCloud permanently deleted my account after just 6 months because it perceived it as inactive. I the backups to my files, just when I needed them because my laptop died. The company failed me in its core service - storing my valuable data.Do not use PCloud unless you are not counting on the data to be there in a few short months.